Free $25 FXCM Micro Currency Trading Account

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and Credit-Land for selected credit cards, and may receive a commission from card issuers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned. Thank you for your support.

You can apparently get a free currency trading with $25 in it when you sign up for this CNBC Portfolio Challenge, with no upfront money required from you. At first I thought it was play money but they even have a requirement before you can cash out:

You must complete five (5) round-turn trades in your new FXCM Micro account, and your account must be in good standing before you are eligible to withdraw any funds from your account. Existing FXCM account holders are not eligible to receive the promotion.

Thanks to reader Andres for the tip. I’m still in Spain so I haven’t tried it myself. I’m just happy the Euro/USD conversion rate is much better than a few months ago! (I’d just gamble with the $25 and cash out, personally.) Please share any experiences or new discoveries in the comments.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and Credit-Land for selected credit cards, and may receive a commission from card issuers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned. MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.

User Generated Content Disclosure: Comments and/or responses are not provided or commissioned by any advertiser. Comments and/or responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser. It is not any advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Comments

FXCM only pays out with a check and there is a $10 fee for the service, so you’re looking at ~$15 net assuming you don’t make any gains. If you just want to trade and cash out, EUR/USD has the smallest spread.

They ask for WAY too much personal info to be worth it. The potential gain of $25 is not worth it to have all of my personal info stored on a server somewhere with a company I know nothing about. They ask for all your employer info, DL#, SS, # of dependents, whats that all about?

I was too suspicious about the level of data they required. Interestingly, I failed to open the account because could not answer the verification questions correctly.

I know they were correct (all three were “none of the above”) which made me think. I opened other accounts before and at least one or two of these questions had something from my past history but this one did not have any. In the end I abandoned it.

I would like to know if any one of you tried and experienced the same thing. I think I will make an inquiry about them and what they do with the information I sent to them.

I also received an email message with the same message about failed sign up attempt and it had instructions to sent a message and get a free online course in currency trading. I got it scheduled for tomorrow morning. Let’s see if it’s any good.

Huh, I’m not sure what all the fuss is about–perhaps I’m just jaded from doing too many bank deals.

In any event, I can confirm (for whatever the opinion of a random commenter on the internet is worth) that these guys are legit. I opened an account, got my $25 credit a few days later, and have been happily trading it. I haven’t tried removing any cash yet (as this was never my intent).

If you’re new to forex, I found babypips.com to be a helpful resource. There seems to be a lot of garbage out there regarding forex trading. (I’m not affiliated with FXCM or Babypips.com. (Man, what is it with me and gratuitous parentheticals today?) )

I opened it with no problem, yeah at first I didnt pass my background check with the questions and then read the questions carefully and found the one I made a mistake on. FXCM is a well known company and I dont think CNBC would be dealing with someone that had a fraudulent intent. Let me know how that class goes.

There are no commissions. FXCM gets paid through the spread (difference between bid and ask price). The typical spread on EUR/USD is 1.5 pips (15 cents). So, the spread for 5 round trip trades would cost $1.50. Of course, this doesn’t include any gain/loss you may make with the trade.

The leverage in the micro accounts is quite large. The lot size is 1000 units (euros, dollars, etc.). Each lot costs justs $2.50 to control. If you’re just trading the $25 they give you, then you just want to trade 1 lot.

Say you’re trading the EUR/USD which has a pip value of 10 cents. You can’t withstand a move of 250 pips against you. According to Babypips.com, the average pips per trading session move of that pair is 70 pips. A common rule of thumb is to have a risk-reward ratio of 1:2, meaning risk 10 pips for a 20 pip gain, 20 pips for a 40 pip gain, etc…

Dave, do they accept international users ? i’m not american and i found my country at the field (citizenship) there but didn’t find it at the field (country/residence) as it’s only displaying : US and porto rico like there’s no place else in the world to live in but those two. also the first form insists on the SS# which is not supported in my country. at least they should have said what countries are allowed to join in the first place.

i think some of u guys are too paranoid about the personal info required by fxcm.its just standard procedure and fxcm is a legit company.i just opened my fxcm microlot account.have tried demo – liked it.

Yes. I ran my $25 up to over $250 in the span of one week, just getting in and out of the Euro’s huge rally against the dollar back in December (?). Then I made a huge bet again on the Euro, right from the top of the peak, and I got almost completely wiped out in the span of like a half-hour or hour 🙁

Since then I’ve lost most of the rest of it and I think I have like $3.50 left in my account.

I started with 1000 Dollars, high risks, made up to 5000 – monday to friday, day and night intensive. Man I felt luckyyy. The whole money went, just like that next monday alone. Believe me its all modern day gambling. The sure winner is the brocker.

Connect with me

Please do not re-publish text or pictures found on this site elsewhere without explicit prior written consent.

Advertiser Disclosure

MyMoneyBlog.com is a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

MyMoneyBlog.com is for informational purposes only. I am not your financial advisor. Do not take it as legal, financial, or tax advice for your personal situation.

Rates and terms set on third-party websites are subject to change without notice. MyMoneyBlog.com may have financial relationships with the merchants mentioned, meaning that I may receive a commission if visitors click on any outbound links and buy something. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is for informational purposes only. Do not take it as legal, financial, or tax advice for your personal situation.

Rates and terms set on third-party websites are subject to change without notice. Per FTC guidelines, MyMoneyBlog.com has financial relationships with the merchants mentioned. MyMoneyBlog.com is compensated if visitors click on any outbound links and generate sales for the said merchant.

The editorial content on this site is not provided by the companies whose products are featured. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or evaluations provided here are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the Advertiser.